Monday, March 8, 2010

Marathon Man Vs. Fanboys

Well sometimes you have to take the bad with the good, and sometimes you have to just take the bad with the bad. Last week from Tuesday to Sunday when I went to bed sucked. Yep, it sucked, it sucked long, and it sucked hard, real hard. Tuesday night Steve and Jeff defeated Dave & I in minis. I got home, didn’t feel that great and then WHAM; seizure on the toilet. Going to the bathroom is a private thing. Having a seizure is embarrassing. Add those two together, like spoiled chocolate & bacteria laden peanut butter, it was two ‘great tastes that taste great together’. I finish my ‘duty’, get it, and made it to the bed. About an hour or so later, I get another one. Suffice to say I was wiped out. I spent most of Wed. & Thursday in bed. Friday I had a low-grade fever.

So good times right? Well Saturday some mix ups occurred time wise and things didn’t go to plan, but BUZZ was that night and I figured maybe things will turn around. They didn’t. I again lost to Anthony “I am not a loser, I’m A WIENER!” J. Again my trivia nemesis bested me due to his far superior speed. I went to bed with my lovely wife thinking, “well at least the worst is over…”

Famous last words.

I’m not going to go into the ugly details, but suffice to say I spent the entire day on the phone with ‘family’ dealing with a situation. It’s frustrating whenever one’s heart is in the right place, but no one can come up with a plan to deal with a terrible situation. I haven’t felt this disconnected from my siblings since the divorce. Hell, I don’t know if they even want me as a brother. I’m supposed to be the one to ‘fix’ this. Well it can’t be fixed, and that is the horrible truth. I’m done with hot snotty tears though; I’m getting back to the business of trying to deal with the day to day. I’m just exhausted. I for one like problems that have solutions, hell even solutions that end up not working, but this one doesn’t really have one. I’m half angry and half just so damn sad over the whole sorted affair.

Anywho…

RANDOM CRAP!

- We were rooting for the Wichita State Shockers against N.U.I. on Sunday in the MVAC title game. No automatic bid for the team with the craziest mascot.- Bill Mahr isn’t funny, but I do enjoy his show Real Time on HBO, and so would anyone else who is into candid political talk.- I finally watched some stuff I just got;o Planet Hulk(*** ½ out of 5 Stars) – Good, HELL YES! Great, nope, not yet. That is Marvel’s animation studio in a nutshell. Planet Hulk hits all the major beats of the epic Greg Pak Hulk tale, but it leaves out some subtle nuances that leave the film sort of flat. In addition the abrupt ending that doesn’t show the horrible consequences for the Hulk’s ascension left me a bit cold. I know it was done so there wasn’t a mandate to do World War Hulk as a sequel, and instead have this be a self-contained story, but it takes away some of the impact. Definitely a better product from Marvel, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.o JLA: Crisis On Earth 2(**** ½) – Perfect, no, but DAMN NEAR! This was another well-done DCU Animated feature. I could go on and on about it, but let me just touch upon a couple highlights;§ James Woods’ Owlman was absolutely chilling.§ Gina Torres’ Superwoman equaled that Woods’ performance with a depraved majesty that made this pair two of the best of recent memory for me.§ Whoever makes the decisions should not let anyone but Kevin Conroy voice Batman, everyone else is a Fail.§ Mark Harmon was a serviceable Superman, but just a tad to twangy for me.§ I’m personally ok with the Batman moral dilemma and its messed up conclusion.§ The Specter back-up 15 minute Showcase is incredible. I would love for DC to just do DVDs of these types of genre orientated character features. It had a great little story, the animation hit on all the right notes, and Gary Cole was the perfect voice for the character.o Farscape Seasons 1 & 2(**** ½) – So I’m a little over half way through this show now, and it was everything it was hyped to be. I really like the characters and their periodic unlikableness, it rings true to real people. After awhile you forget that some of these characters are high tech Jim Henson puppets due to the voice acting. And I’d say overall the story overreaching story arc has been fantastic. I’ve got Cassandra roped in and have even caught her crying during some of the sadder episodes. If you love Sci-Fi, GOOD Sci-Fi, do yourself a favor and track this show down. It’ll grab you and shake the crap out of you, in a fun way.- We had Xin Xin yesterday and my insides are satisfied.- I’m halfway through Kull, Exile Of Atlantis and as much as I love(s) me some Conan, I must say I’m finding a connection to the introspective nature of King Kull that I didn’t quiet have with all of R.E.H.’s Conan tales. Wonderfully vivid storytelling to boot.- I’m tired and I want to go home…

5 comments:

buzz was awesome, as always. thank you for hosting, and sorry for adding to the pile of things that are "teh sux0rz" To tide you over, just think of how sweet your eventual trivia victory will be, to see me, your one-time trivia overlord, broken, battered and driven before you in chains, all the while hearing the lamentations of my women(woman)... that day will come, Ben. I know it will, for each time I have come out the victor, It's only been by just a sliver, mere fractions of a second. Your time in the sun will come, and the beltcrown of trivia mastery will rest on your mantle, it's ancestral home...

not sure where all that came from. Hope things start looking up for you, bro montana.

Word. Hope things are looking up this week. If not, I'm here to offer some comic book talk as distraction.

I really didn't like Planet Hulk at all. Most of my disdain comes from the screenwriter who I felt missed some great opportunities to tell a great story. If someone were to say that there isn't the time in a two hour movie to hit everything, I easily counter back that the incredibly contrived "origin" stories of several of the characters were not needed to tell to the story. Poor screenwriting, and poor directing I say.

One more thing. Watching the "Creating Planet Hulk" special feature you can really see why the wrong team was put together to adapt this comic. They say things like, "at first I didn't want to do another Hulk movie. I thought everything about that character that needed to be said we said already" and "I didn't read the comics...".

Anthony,I actually thought I heard Queen's "We Are The Champions" in my head during that final round, like it was finally gonna be my time. THEN you rode in on your Trivia horse and dashed those hopes and dreams like dust into the wind...BUZZ! was tremendous, it always is. I'm sure that sometime I'll win, just not that day. And while I wait at least I lost to someone who is not only as smart as I am, but is WAY faster...

J.-Dawg,I enjoyed the backstory stuff, but I wanted more of the Caira/Hulk relationship. I wanted more of the exodus into the desert and Hulk as a messiah figure, so I agree that the screenwriter seemed to aim low when translating the material from the source. If he consciously did that then he succeeded.

For me I enjoyed it because I got a cartoon with the Hulk, and not just "HULK SMASH!" Hulk, but The Green Scar! As much as Marvel disappoints me with thier direct to DVD movies, and the vast majority of thier cartoons (The exception is Wolverine & The X-Men series which is TITS!) at least I'm getting something. I think both companies have an obligation to put out GOOD 'toons of thier properties. I mean we got TWO great animated Hellboy flicks, a kick-ass Turok animated flick, DC continually pumps out high quality good stuff, and Batman Brave & The Bold on Cartoon Network is like having fun directly injected into your brain. I just want Marvel to keep pace. That's why I have insanely high hopes for thier upcoming Avengers cartoon, done by the same crew who do Wolverine & The X-Men.

As for the "Creating Planet Hulk" I did watch that, and it's amazing that people who make thier living doing things like this don't even like what they are doing. FUCK THEM! They can come do my job and I'll go make cartoons about awesome shit. That stuff pisses me off. THIS is why we don't get good comic book films, animated and otherwise. Hollywood types rape the source material for good ideas, since they are devoid of them, and then try and turn them into something palataple for the troglodytes of 'Merica. Fuck 'Merica! Comics are for the people who love them I don't care if 'Merica doesn't get it, in fact I'm glad when they don't...

"I beg your pardon, but this is MY secret garden..."

You MUST see JLA: Crisis On Earth 2, it will wash the bitter taste of Planet Hulk out of your mouth.